Dry Rib Poutine

As of late, I've been trying to clean out the freezer, so supper usually consist of random items thrown together.  And these random items are mostly appetizer foods such as onion rings, sausage rolls, or baked brie. You know, the really healthy stuff.  As I was coming to the end of my freezer purging, I was getting really sick of random items and junk food in general and though maybe a smoothie would be a better route to take when I came across a bag of dry ribs.  Instantly, a craving for dry rib poutine came over me and I just could not get it out of my head.  So I decided one more night of bad eating won't kill me, and I'll get back on track tomorrow and maybe eat some veggies.

If your Canadian, you already know what poutine is.  If not, let me give you the breakdown of this uniquely Canadian dish.  It's nothing fancy really, just french fries, gravy and cheese curds.  It's delicious and it's popular.  In fact, my hometown has a restaurant completely devoted to poutine and they serve it about a million different ways.  But I'm pretty sure they don't serve it up MY way.

My way lacks fries and gravy, but it most certainly contains cheese.  So it's not technically a traditional poutine, but it's inspired by it.  I simply replace the fries with dry ribs and gravy with honey garlic sauce and top it all with cheese.  The first time I had this I was blown away.  We were having a potluck at work and someone ordered in pizza and dry rib poutine from a local pizza joint and I was hooked.  If memory serves me, I pretty much ignored the pizza and scarfed down as much dry rib poutine as I could.  Not only is it deliciously addicting, it's super easy to make.  You can use store bought sauce of your liking and away you go.  I promise you, this will be a hit with anyone who likes ribs, wings or poutine.

Dry Rib Poutine

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp white vinegar

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup water

1-2 tbsp cornstarch

700 g breaded boneless pork dry ribs

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Directions

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisk together honey, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar and garlic. Bring to a boil.

Whisk cornstarch and water together until there are no lumps.  Add to saucepan and reduce heat.  Whisk until sauce thickens.  Remove from heat.

Place dry ribs in a single layer on baking sheet.  Place under the broiler until browned and slightly crispy.  Remove from oven and place ribs into a baking dish.  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Pour sauce over the ribs and stir until all ribs are well coated.  Top with cheese.

Bake until sauce is bubbling and cheese has melted.  Place back under broiler to brown the cheese if you like.